TOKYO – World number-one Lee Chong Wei, struggling to find form after his Olympic heartbreak, reached the Japan Open semi-finals Friday with an erratic 21-17, 21-17 win over Chinese qualifier Qiu Yanbo.

The Malaysian, beaten by China’s world champion Lin Dan in last month’s Olympic final, came back from 13-9 down in the first game and was forced to battle neck-to-neck with the world’s 149th-ranked player.

Lee, the defending champion, faces a semi-final with Denmark’s Joachim Persson who trounced former Olympic champion and fourth-seed Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia 12-21, 21-19, 23-21.

It was another day of disappointment for Hidayat, 27, who crashed out in his first match at the Beijing Olympics with lingering effects of dengue fever.

Lee, who has blamed his struggle here on post-Olympic fatigue, said he was made to work by Qiu because “I have never fought him before and I was not sure about how he would play the shuttle”.

“I’m satisfied with the level of my play today. I want to play better and better each day to give all I have,” he added.

Hidayat, who beat Persson in their only previous encounter at the China Masters last year, tied the score at 21-all after surviving two match points in the third game.

But he netted two consecutive shots to bow out from the seventh leg of the 12-round Super Series world tour.

“I feel very much disappointed,” said the 2005 world champion, whose best results this year were quarter-finals at the All England and Swiss Open Super Series events.

Persson, 25, said he kept his cool after 21-all in the third game.

“At that point, I just thought you have to be calm otherwise you lose. So I tried to focus on playing the game,” he said.

On his semi-final against Lee, who beat him at the Singapore Open in June, Persson said: “I’m a massive underdog but if I’m fresh I know I can give a very good match.”

Lee said: “I’ll try to beat him again. Maybe, he’s very aggressive in this tournament. I’ll try to attack first. I’m quite confident.”

In other matches, second-seeded Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia beat Malaysian Muhammad Roslin Hashim 21-16, 21-11.

Dwi Kuncoro will now face Japan’s Kenichi Tago, third at the Indonesia Open Super Series in June, who outlasted Lu Yi of China 21-18, 21-17.

In the women’s quarter-finals, Lu Lan of China avenged her full-set defeat to Maria Kristin Yulianti in the Olympic bronze-medal bout, coming from behind to whip the Indonesian 13-21, 22-20, 22-20.

Defending champion Tine Rasmussen of Denmark breezed past world silver medallist Wang Chen of Hong Kong 21-18, 21-16.

“I worked hard. It was tough to overcome the loss of the first game and keep on pushing,” said Lu, seeded top in the absence of her compatriots, Beijing Olympic gold medallist Zhang Ning and silver medallist Xie Xingfang.

“Fresh from our Olympic bronze-medal play-off, we clashed with each other, raring to win. We were almost level technically,” she said.

Yulianti said: “I lost because she was better at something today and I accept it as it is.”

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